Diary Of A Madman 40th Anniversary Edition AVAILABLE VIA DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Or, as Benny Hill might say, Dairy Of A Milkman.

This 40th-anniversary edition of Ozzy Osbourne’s second post- Black Sabbath album has more bonus features than a cosmetic surgeon’s scalpel. There’s even the opportunity to Adopt-A-Bat, following Ozzy’s neardevastation of the species circa 1982.

Except that in reality the 40th firework frolics are curiously muted: less Guy Fawkes dizbuster, more soggy sachet of sparklers. For starters, the album is only available digitally (apart from a handful of Walmart Black Friday vinyl editions).

And the bonus features amount to just a coupla live tracks – Believer and Flying High Again – “previously unavailable digitally”. Plus there’s a variety of animated and live clips newly available on YouTube. One cannot help but feel a trifle more effort could have been expended in the birthday department.

The legacy of Diary Of A Madman (along with its Blizzard Of Ozz predecessor) has undoubtedly been tainted by the row between Sharon Osbourne and soloOzzy’s original rhythm section: bassist Bob Daisley and drummer the late Lee Kerslake. The duo weren’t mere hired hands, their musicianship and songwriting nous were integral to Ozzy’s solo success – so the argument goes. A disgruntled Shazza even deleted Daisley/Kerslake’s contributions in 2002, Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin overdubbing instead. Tellingly, the press release includes a photo of the Ozzy band with bassist Rudy Sarzo and tub thumper Tommy Aldridge; no mention of the petulant pair they replaced.

Regardless of the legitimacy, or otherwise, of the Daisley/Kerslake claims, in 1981 fans were interested in only two things: Ozzy and his talismanic guitarist, the lamented Randy Rhoads, who together formed one of rock’s great double acts. This writer recalls a freezing midwinter gig in Bradford, Ozzy sporting a fetching fur-collared car coat just purchased from the local Grace Brothers emporium, the diminutive but hypercharismatic Rhoads coming across like a mix of Eddie Van Halen and Michael Schenker but, of course, with a scintillating style of his own. Who was playing bass ’n’ drums? Might as well have been Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.